Reflecting on the conceptual design stages for the solar tracker
At this point, a designer will have reached the stage of their understanding of the solar tracker apparatus that they would be ready to develop a rudimentary conceptual design for the sun tracker. However! We know that without ‘domain’ knowledge of the engineering and physics that goes into the design of an apparatus like this, you won’t be able to come up with an actual conceptual design.
Instead, in the next step we’d like you to discuss with your fellow learners what steps you would need to take in the process of moving from the functions stage of the solar tracker conceptual design, through to the end of the design phase.
Before that, let’s set out what you need to reflect on before joining the discussion.
Reflect
- Think about what you learned in Activity 3 (‘Focussing on the design phase’) and discuss what steps a designer would now need to take to complete the conceptual design phase of a solar tracker.
- Then set out what a designer would need to do to get to the end of the design phase.
These discussions are intended to enable you to consolidate what you have learned in Activity 3 and to enable you to compare your understanding to your peers, helping each other clarify points where you can.
Go to the next step to find the discussion (‘What would a designer need to do next?’)
Further resources
If you are interested in how various designers have tackled the challenge of the solar tracker, feel free to visit these YouTube videos:
An extremely simple single-axis solar tracker that uses tiny solar panels to detect the sun’s location and drive electric motors directly.
DIY solar tracking system inspired by NASA’s Parker solar probe
This simple solution for a dual-axis solar tracker is quite creative and easy to implement.
DIY Solar tracker that uses photoresistors for determining the sun’s location
This design of a dual-axis solar tracker uses photoresistors (instead of tiny solar panels as in the above solutions) to determine the sun’s position. In addition to describing the design of the solar tracker, the video compares the power conversion efficacy of a non-tracking solar panel to that of a tracking one but you don’t need to concentrate on this part of the experiment as you are mainly interested in how the solar tracker was developed.
This single axis solar tracker uses small solar panels that directly drive a linear actuator to tilt the main panel east and west.
This is a dual axis commercial solar tracking system. It uses an altazimuth mounting mechanism controlled by a solar detector.
Fundamental Skills in Engineering Design
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